Estudo retrospectivo das doenças infecciosas em aves silvestres e exóticas diagnosticadas no hospital veterinário da Universidade Federal da Paraíba.

Abstract

The dissertation was divided into two chapters. The first chapter addresses the infectious diseases that affected wild and exotic birds between the years 2013 and 2018 according to the autopsy book of the Veterinary Pathology Laboratory (LPV) of the Federal University of Paraíba-UFPB. The general cases of birds with various infectious conditions diagnosed through necroscopic examination, histopathology, histochemistry and immunohistochemistry. It divides infectious diseases into bacterial, fungal and caused by protozoa, and it is often not possible to classify the agents involved in the disease diagnosed in the studied specimens. In a total of 189 tissue samples from necropsy or biopsy collected from wild and exotic birds. Of these animals, 50 (26.45%) were infectious diseases. Bacterial diseases were the most prevalent representing 26 (52%) cases, followed by fungi with 11 (22%) affected birds and lastly protozoa with 2 (4%) of the total number of birds diagnosed with infectious disease. The most affected species were Papagaio-real (Amazona aestiva), Maracanã-nobre (Diopsittaca nobilis), Hawk-winged Parabuteo (Parabuteo unicinctus) and Canary-of-land (Sicalis flaveola), respectively. This survey confirms the need to investigate pathogens of infectious origin, whether they are bacterial, fungal or protozoan in prey, passerines and psittaciforms, as these can be affected, as well as representing a source of infection directly or indirectly. The second chapter deals with cases of aspergillosis, a fungal disease that affected several species described in the survey, as well as their pathological characterizations and epidemiological data of the affected specimens. In passerines, the disease presented in cutaneous and systemic form, whereas in parrots the pulmonary and systemic forms were the main ones, a pattern that is repeated when it comes to falconiforms. The main clinical findings were dyspnea, poor digestibility of grains and the development of granulomatous lesions followed by sudden death. At necropsy, the main changes were circulatory, including hemorrhage, edema and congestion in the lung, liver and spleen, granulomatous lesions in parenchymal organs and in the skin. In histopathology, the main findings were granulomatous aerosaculitis, granulomatous pneumonia, liver granulomas and fungal folliculitis. In two cases of A. aestiva, positive microbiological isolations for aspergillus were performed. In another case of F. magnificens, immunohistochemistry was performed, which was positive for the anti-aspergillus and anti-zygomycete antibody. In the other cases, confirmation was made through histochemical examination, in which the agent's septa hyphae were positively marked with the stains of periodic acid from schiff-PAS and silver methanamine from Gomori-Grocott. Our study confirms the possibility of infection by Aspergillus sp in Amazona aestiva, Parabuteo unicinctus, Sporophila nigricollis, Crotophaga ani and Fregata magnificens. Despite being different species, they presented similar pathogenesis and pathological lesions, making it possible to establish a pattern of clinical and pathological presentation of the disease in wild birds in northeastern Brazil.